Detroit Free Press Lansing Bureau

LANSING — Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Schauer released Tuesday a 24-page blueprint to improve the state’s economy, calling for increased spending on public education, a program to fix crumbling roads and bridges, and a 30% renewable energy standard that he said would make Michigan a national leader.

Schauer, who also promised to repeal new state taxes on pension income imposed under Republican Gov. Rick Snyder and fully restore the Earned Income Tax Credit, was short on specifics about how he would pay for the programs, saying those details would be laid out in his first state budget.

Schauer did say he would shift spending away from for-profit charter schools, end the use of School Aid Fund money on higher education in favor of K-12 schools, root out government waste and fraud, stop corporate “sweetheart deals” and tax loopholes, and get Michigan a greater share of federal road money.

He said at a news conference at a union training facility in Lansing his plan would create tens of thousands of good jobs. When reporters pointed out that Snyder says more than 250,000 private-sector jobs have been created in Michigan since he took office in 2011, Schauer said he doesn’t dispute those numbers, but believes most of them are because of the rebound in the automotive industry. He said his own job-creation numbers are conservative.

“The best way to create jobs is to grow the economy from the bottom up and the middle out, not from the top down,” Schauer told reporters.

“Rick Snyder’s policies may work for the wealthy, but they don’t work for the rest of Michigan.”

Schauer, a former state lawmaker and one-term congressman from Battle Creek, wouldn’t say how much more he would spend on K-12 schools than what the Snyder administration now spends. His running mate, Oakland County Clerk Lisa Brown, said a Schauer administration would undertake a study to determine how much was needed.

On roads, Schauer criticized Snyder and the GOP-controlled Legislature for failing to reach a road funding and improvement plan, saying municipalities around the state are now raising local taxes to pay for needed improvements, and that road-related repairs are costing Michigan motorists an extra $2.5 billion a year.

He said he’s opposed to an increase in the fuel tax, but would make sure heavy trucks that damage the roads pay their fair share.

Emily Benavides, a spokeswoman for the Snyder campaign, said the governor’s record on jobs and the economy is clear, and since Snyder took office the state unemployment rate — now at 7.5% — is the lowest it has been in six years. When Schauer was last in the state Legislature, Michigan was losing jobs and had an unemployment rate in double digits, she said.

“Michiganders can’t afford Mark Schauer’s rhetoric,” she said.

Schauer proposed a renewable energy standard of 30% by 2035. Currently, Michigan has set a standard of 10% by 2015 and Michigan voters in 2012 rejected a constitutional amendment that would have set a 25% standard by 2025.

Schauer said voters rejected the proposal because it involved an amendment to the state constitution, among other reasons. He said his proposed standard is achievable, would create thousands of jobs and would protect the environment without significantly hiking electricity costs.